The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-04-22
SECRET SOCIETIES
THE SUBJECT OF DR.. TALMAGE's
SERMON AT THE TABERNACLE,


THE SUBJECT OF DR.. TALMAGE'
SERMON At THE TABERNACLE.
"What Il tine Moral Effect Of Free MA
sonry, Odd Fellowship, knights a
Labor, Greek Alphabet and Othor So
cieties?"
BROOKLYN, April 17.-The Rev. r. d
Witt Talmagc D. D., announced to his con
gregation to-day that, as the Brooklyn taber
nacle has been uncomfortably crowded TO
many years, the trustees have purchased tn
adjoining ground, ON which great church
prayer and Sunday school room will b,
built, which on Sabbath can be opened intt
the main auditorium, thus giving room fol
Mt least 900 more hearers at services Siz
thousand people are crowded into the pres
ent building, 1850 of these in pews and
about 800 seated in aisles and standing
The Improvement will add greatly to this
capacity.
The subject Of DR.. Talmage's sermon to-day
was, "What 10 the moral effect of Free
Masonry, Odd Fellowship, Knights of Labor,
Greek Alphabet and other societiesg' The
text was from Proverbs XIV, 0: "Dis-
cover not secret to another" DR.. Talmage
said:
1t appears that in Solomons time as in all
subsequent periods of the world, there were
people too much disposed to tell all they knew.
1t was blab, blab, blab physicians revealing
the case of their patients, lawyers exposing
the private affairs of their clients, neighbors
advertising the faults Of tho next door resi-
dent; pretended friends bctraying conf
dences. One-half of the trouble Of every
community comes from the fact that so many
people have not capacity to keep their
mouths shut. When hear something dis
paraging of you my first duty is not to tell
you. But IL tell you what somebody has
said against you, and then 60 out and tell
everybody else what told you, and they go
out and tell Others what told them that I
told you, and we all 60 out, some to hunt up
the originator Of the story and others to hunt
it down, we shall get the whole community
talking about what you did do and what YOU
did not do, and there will be as many scalps
taken as though band of Modocs had swept
upon helpless village. We have two ears
but only one tongue, physiological sugges-
ton that we ought to hear good deal more
than we tell. Let us join conspiracy that
we will tell each other all the good and
nothing of the i'll, and then there will not be
such awful need of sermons on Solomon's
words:f Discover not secret to another"
Solomon had very large domestic circle.
In his earlier days he had very confused no.
tions about monogamy and polygamy, and
his multitudinous associates in the matri- |
monial state kept him too well informed as to |
what was going on in Jerusalem They
gathered up all the privacies of the city and
poured them into his ear, and his family be-
came Sorosis or female debating society
OF 700, discussing day after day all the diff
culties between husbands and wives, between
employers and employees, Between rulers and
subjects, until Solomon, in my text, deplores
volubility about affairs that do not belong
to us and extols the virtue of secretiveness.
BY the power of secret divulged, families,
churches, neighborhoods, nations fly apart.
By the power Of a secret kept, great charities,
socialities, reformatory movements and
Christian enterprises may be advanced. Men
are gregarious-cattl in herds, fish in schools,
birds in focks, men in social circles You
may by the discharge Of a gun scatter a flock
of quails or by the plunge Of the anchor send
apart tine denizens of the sea, but they will
gather themselves together again. If you by
some new power could break the associations
in which men now stand, they would again
adhere. God meant it so. He has gathered
all the flowers and shrubs into associations
You may plant one forget-me-not or hearts,
ease alone, away off upon the hillside, but it
will soon hunt up some other forgetmc-not or
heart's-ease. Plants love company. You will
find them talking to each other in the dew. A
galaxy Of stars is only mutual life insurance
You sometimes see man with no
out branchings of sympathy. His nature is
cold and hard, like ships mast ice glazed,
which the most agile sailor could never climb
Others have a thousand roots and a thousand
branches 1numcrable tendrils climb their
hearts and blossom all the way up, and the
fowls of heaven sing in the branches. In con-
sequence of this tendency we find men coming
together in tribes in communities in churches,
in societies. Some gather together to cultivate
the arts some to plan for the welfare of the
state, some to discuss religious themes, some
to kindle their mirth, some to advance their
craft. So every active community is divided
in associations Of artists, of merchants, Of
bookbinders, of carpenters, of masons. Of
plasterers, Of shipwrights, of plumbers. Do
you cry out against its Then you cry out
against a tendency divinely implanted. Your
TRADES would accomplish no more than if you
should preach to busy ant hill or beehive a
long sermon against secret societies.
Here we find the oft-discussed question,
whether associations that do their work with
closed DOORS admit their members by pass
words, and greet each other with secret grip
are right or wrong. I answer that it de-
Ponds entirely on the nature of the object for
which they meet. Is it to pass the hours in
revelry, wassail, blasphemy and obscene talk,
or to plot trouble to the state, or to debauch
the innocent, then say, with an emphasis
that no man can mistake, MOI But is the OBJ
ject the defense Of the rights of any class
against oppression, the Improvement of the
mind, the enlargement Of the heart, the ad-
of art, the defense Of tho govern
ment, the extirpation of crime, or the kind
ling of pure-hearted sociality, then say,
with just as much emphasis, Yes.
There is no need that we who plan for the
conquest Of right over wrong should publish
10 all the world our intentions. The general
If an army never sends to the opposing troops
Information Of the coming attack. Shall we
who have enlisted in the cause Of God and